™
PLANETARY EMPIRES
THE ROK OF AGES
Planetary Empires is released this month, tying all of our 40K
Tales from Vogen
Expansions together. So what better way to stoke the fires of war
Only a few years back,
the Studio was embroiled than with one of the Studio’s famous super-campaigns? Phil Kelly
in the Vogen campaign, a talks us through his greatest Warhammer 40,000 adventure yet.
brutal struggle for an
ancient Imperial city. Phil: One of the best things about
So map-based 40K Warhammer 40,000 campaigns is the
campaigns are nothing narrative; the story that you enact from
new. What has changed, battle to battle. Right from the start you
however, is there’s now a have an inbuilt conflict, as all of the
dedicated kit that allows
you to make great-
players jostle for the upper hand. Well, I’ve
looking maps without a always been into such gaming events; for
degree in cartography! me they are the pinnacle of the hobby. The
narrative of a planetary invasion seemed
like a perfect background for the latest
Studio campaign. After all, with
Planetstrike thundering onto the gaming
scene and Planetary Empires hot on its
heels, it would seem that the stars were
aligned for a great season of hard-fought
and tense battles.
So, after sequestering a bunch of
Planetary Empires tiles and writing up a
little backstory for the planet I intended to
use as the focus of the campaign, I was
pretty much ready to start. There was one
aspect that nagged at me, though – I
34 WHITE DWARF THE ROK OF AGES
™
wanted the good guys to have as much
chance to strike planets as the bad guys.
Sure, they could counter-attack at the
positions taken by the evildoers, that would
work fine… but then an idea came to me.
Why not have two worlds invading each
other at the same time in an interplanetary
conflict that allowed every player to take
either role with equal legitimacy? Even
better, why not have one of the worlds
actually being steered towards the other by
a massive set of engines, the continent-
crushing impact between the two worlds
giving new meaning to the term
Planetstrike? ‘Surely that’s impossible’, said
one side of my brain, but it was drowned
out by the other, more fun, side that was
shouting ‘WAAAGH!’ at the top of its
metaphorical voice.
And so the Rok of Ages was born – a
titanic planetoid harnessed by the Orks
who had kitted it out with the salvaged
engines of captured spacecraft. With a few
megatonnes of Mek-know-wots and the
mineral resources of the Rok itself, the
Orky engines were completed, propelling
the Rok through space with slow but
deadly momentum. By the time it reached
its target world of Meridian, the Rok would
be impossible to stop. Or so the Orks
thought – arrayed against them were not
only the Imperial settlers of Meridian itself,
desperate to mine as much of the planet’s
riches as possible, but also the Eldar to
whom the maiden world rightly belonged.
They would fight to the last to reach the
Rok of Ages and blow it to smithereens
before it could scourge the life from
Meridian. This premise gave us a storyline
upon which to base all manner of cool
games, a rich opportunity for dozens of
different games of 40K, Cities of Death,
Apocalypse and Planetstrike, and a suitably
dramatic climax that will give us a chance
to use our entire collections. I got busy
putting the two campaign maps together
and roped in some of the lads for an
evening of beer, pizza and bastion-
building. Before long we were ready for
the most ambitious campaign yet.
he once-verdant meadows of the former maiden world of Meridian
T have been befouled by the morbid architecture of the Imperium.
Its azure skies are choked by acidic smoke and its lush fields are
smothered by grey urban sprawl. Meridian is rich in Helian III, an isotope
that can provide near limitless energy under the right conditions. Because
of its bountiful natural resources, this green paradise has been plundered
by Imperial forces, settlers and explorators. Yet more converge upon it day
after day. They will not leave until Meridian is mined to exhaustion,
reduced to a scarred and ravaged husk where once was a jewel hanging
in the firmament.
And yet that is only half of the tragic story of Meridian. Drifting
through space towards the maiden world is a catastrophe waiting to
happen, or rather one that is looking for a world to happen to. The Rok
of Ages it is called; a titanic asteroid that has been infested with
greenskins and equipped with gigantic engines that propel it through space
with slow but deadly momentum. As the Rok of Ages floats through the
void, the Orks aboard it make their plans of conquest. They laugh about
driving their harnessed planetoid straight into an unsuspecting and populous
world. They fight amongst themselves to lead the invasion as Meridian, at
first a green dot in the distance, becomes a circle, then a sphere, then a
world. In the dead of night, they whisper in hushed tones of things even
more strange and deadly than their Chaos Space Marine allies, things that
live inside the Rok itself. All hell is poised to break loose upon Meridian
in a planetary invasion of epoch-shattering proportions.
But the Imperial forces upon Meridian are not without their defences.
The capital hive of Arcadia boasts an ancient defence laser capable of
destroying orbiting spacecraft. The Mechanicus launch-base of Benefact
Majoris is priming Ignis Deo, a Skylord-class missile that towers above
even the spires of the nearby hives. The long-range augur stations of Hive
Ereone have picked up the Rok’s approach. Meridian is girding itself for
war. Yet even with all its defences arrayed, its bastions manned and its
defence lines bristling with interceptor batteries, the combined firepower of
Meridian cannot stop the planetoid’s descent, for the Rok is the size of a
small moon. All know in their hearts that if the Orks complete their plan
and the planetoid collides with the world below then it will be the end.
Destroying the Rok is the only way to save Meridian from the imminent
apocalypse inexorably approaching from the depths of space.
So the stage is set. As Ork and Chaos ships blast through the
stratosphere to take out Meridian’s planetary defences, the spaceports of
Meridian fill with strike forces intent on establishing a landing zone upon
the planetoid whilst the Rok of Ages grinds ever closer with the
inevitability of death. If the Imperial forces launch a successful counter-
invasion and penetrate deep into the Rok, they can plant nuclear charges
and blow it apart in a spectacular display of pyrotechnics that will fill the
night sky of Meridian from horizon to horizon and give rise to a new era
of hope and prosperity. Conversely, if the Orks and their nefarious allies
make planetfall and take out Meridian’s defence networks, the Rok of Ages
will come crashing down with world-crushing force onto the maiden world
below, altering the course of history forever.
The fate of Meridian hangs in the balance…
www.games-workshop.com 35
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PLANETARY EMPIRES

CAMPAIGN OVERVIEW THE RULES

The Rok of Ages campaign has been split into three distinct phases as the Rok The campaign uses the sample system designed by Jervis, and included in the
plummets ever onward towards the planet. Splitting the campaign up like this Planetary Empires booklet. However, just as Jervis encourages, the system has
gives it structure and allows for a variety of types of game. been further developed and tweaked to suit the campaign background.

PHASE ONE – PLANETSTRIKE!

T T
he Rok of Ages campaign is designed
to celebrate all aspects of the
Warhammer 40,000 game, and can
be adapted for use in your own gaming
group with a little effort. Though it uses
the Planetary Empires rules to determine
the shape of the campaign overall, the
individual games will cover a lot of
different variants. These are broadly
categorised into three phases:
As the gigantic planetoid of the Rok burns
through the stratosphere of Meridian, both
sides are attempting to make planetfall
upon their foe’s base and cripple their
military installations so that more of their
comrades can flood into the enemy
warzone. For that reason the campaign
starts with lots of games of Planetstrike –
the good guys can invade the planetoid
base, whilst the bad guys invade Meridian
itself. This gives everyone a chance to try
the role of attacker and defender – each
has its perks and strategies for you to enjoy.
It is possible that the defender in a
game of Planetstrike beats his attacker, and
ends up capturing the attacker’s hex as a
result. This is perfectly fine – it means that
the defender has capitalised on his enemy’s
failure, and that his counter-attack was
particularly effective!
PHASE TWO – TOTAL WAR
Once the battle is in full swing and forces
are properly established on each map, you
have a choice; you can either invade more
territory by playing more games of
Planetstrike, play games of Cities of Death
to represent the terrible struggles in the
urbanised areas of Meridian, or you can
play normal games of Warhammer 40,000.
Intrepid players will want to roll on the
following chart to determine what type of
game they play:
Result Game type
1-2 Standard 40K Mission.
3-4 Cities of Death.
5 Planetstrike – ‘good’ defending.
6 Planetstrike – ‘bad’ defending.
During this phase, one player may end up
with more resources than another, but the
difference is never that drastic so never fear
if you get off on the wrong foot. This phase
makes up the main bulk of the campaign.
PHASE THREE – APOCALYPSE
Whatever happens, the last phase of the
campaign will involve some large and
impressive games of Apocalypse, some of
which will be hinged around the fuel
refineries that process the precious Helian
III so vital to the war effort. The outcome of
these games will determine the fate of
Meridian itself, but rest assured it’ll be
indescribably violent either way.
he Rok of Ages campaign, as you
might have already figured out, is a
campaign with a difference. We’ve
learnt from previous Studio campaigns
that not everybody has the same amount
of time to play, so we’ve devised a system
that accommodates both the casual gamer
and the super-keen fanatic alike. We’ve
also kept it relatively simple, because that
way you can concentrate on getting the
best out of the new Planetary Empires and
Planetstrike rulesets.
TAKING SIDES
The players in the campaign are divided
into two factions – ‘good guys’ and ‘bad
guys’. The good guys are based
predominantly on the green Meridian map,
the bad guys on the grey asteroid map. If
you want to rationalise why aliens such as
Tau would be attacking Meridian, you can
explain it away with the presence of the
precious isotope Helian III, though we
suggest you don’t lose too much sleep over
it and just concentrate on getting some
really fun games started for now. The sides
are divided as follows:
Good Guys
Space Marines (all loyalist Chapters),
Imperial Guard, Witch Hunters,
Daemonhunters, Eldar.
Bad Guys
Orks, Chaos Space Marines, Necrons,
Tyranids, Dark Eldar, Tau.
If the sides do not work out evenly, try
swapping the Eldar or Dark Eldar players
around – Eldar are notoriously fickle after
all, and they are really on no one’s side but
their own!
RED vs BLUE
To keep things simple, good guys have
blue flags and bad guys have red flags –
the campaign’s progress is decided by
counting up the flags at the end of each
week of play. Essentially, whichever side
has the most flags at the end of the
campaign is the winner, so grab territory
whenever you can – it is territory and not
victories that determines the ultimate fate
of the planet(s). The player with the most
flags at the end of the campaign is the
overall winner and is proclaimed Grand
Overlord of Meridian.
To mark out a flag as your particular
territory, the little blip on the top of the flag
(as well as the flagpole) can be painted in a
colour or design of your choice. This will
mark out your flag from the rest of those on
your side – add your initials in black pen
to your flag as well if you can write that
small! The only stipulation is that your flag
must remain predominantly red or blue so
that players can see which side is winning
at a glance.
Designer’s note: In our campaign there
are more hexes on the good guys’ map,
and more good guy players, so they start
with more flags. To balance this out, the
bad guys have two special areas that
confer campaign-wide advantages. You
might want to tinker with the rules to
ensure your own campaign is ‘fair’, but
we’ve found that it is more important to
have fun and vibrant games than to ensure
that everything is completely fair. The good
guys, for instance, also have hive cities,
which are fantastic advantages as they
combine the benefits of a spaceport, a
command bastion, a shield generator and a
manufactorum (upgrades detailed in the
Planetary Empires rules).
SEASONS OF WAR
Phil wanted a visual way to track the different phases over the course
of the campaign. Because he wanted something a bit more imaginative
than a sign that said ‘PHASE ONE’ (and also because he’s a bit
peculiar), Phil decided to do this by changing the ‘seasons’ of the
board so that the campaign began in the height of summer, then
progressed through to autumn and finally winter. In this way the
players got the feeling of the landscape changing as the campaign
went on, and there was a nice visual way of representing the time
passing as Meridian drew ever closer to the winter of its discontent.

36 WHITE DWARF THE ROK OF AGES www.games-workshop.com 37

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PLANETARY EMPIRES

THE GRAND MUSTER NB: If you want to be extra gracious and

UPGRADES Once your flags are painted, you’re ready ‘fair’ to the players, you can go in reverse
APLENTY to begin. There should always be a grand order for the placement of the second set
In the basic Planetary muster to kick the campaign off – details of flags and then back to the normal order
Empires rules, a player are included below. If you cannot make it for the last flag.
can place an upgrade to this grand muster, send someone in your The last flag that each player has in his
(command bastion, place, otherwise you will end up with collection may be planted upon the
manufactorum, shield rubbish territories! enemy’s map if you wish – this represents
generator, or power your forces making planetfall upon an
station) whenever he HOW TO PLACE FLAGS empty drop zone.
wins a game. In this Each player has a number of flags to begin
campaign we used a with, depending on the size of the maps TERRITORIES
slightly different used – simply count the number of hexes Each player starts with the same number of
system, because many and divide it by the number of players you hexes or ‘territories’ under his control. This
of the upgrades were have signed up for the campaign. That’s number will ebb and flow as the campaign
already built into the how many flags each player has to begin progresses, but what we’re really interested
maps Phil had put with. For instance, in the Rok of Ages in is the number of territories belonging to
together. Essentially campaign we have 25 players and a total each side, not each person. In this way a
Phil placed a great of 90 tiles, so each player has 3 flags player with hardly any spare time can play
many upgrades on the (though more have been supplied in case a single game and still contribute to the
In the aftermath of the game, Fil
boards and let the they do well) and there will be 15 war effort, whilst keen players can SPECIAL TERRITORIES makes his conquest roll against
players fight over who unclaimed tiles left over. That’s actually a mastermind an entire campaign by leading Certain territories have special rules that go Andrew, but doesn’t score enough
controlled them during good thing – it means that new players can from the front. alongside them. If you are in possession of to take a territory.
the course of the join in at a later date. It’s important to conquer territory. Some a special tile (showcased later in this
campaign. Then, at the To determine in which order our territories (those furthest away from your article), you get to apply the bonus rules
beginning of every players placed their flags, each player own) will be difficult to conquer even if that go alongside that tile. Assume that the
phase, Phil made like rolled a D100 (the first D10 rolled for the you win your game – a special dice roll is larger and more impressive the terrain
Santa Claus and gave tens, second D10 rolled for the units – but needed, and you have to beat a certain upon a named territory, the more powerful
each player another you can just as well use D6 for this to give score depending on how distant or well- it is, and you won’t go far wrong.
upgrade that they a result between 11 and 66 instead). We protected that square is. An unprotected
could place whenever then listed the players on a flip chart in square (most of them) adjacent to your UNCLAIMED TERRITORIES
they wanted – provided order from 1 to 100. Having established a own territory can be conquered on the roll Occasionally you will find that there are
they painted it up first! ‘priority’ order we let the players take turns of a 3+ on 2D6, so you’ll probably unclaimed territories on the map. Any
Don’t be mean with to place their flags in any tile they wished. succeed if you pick your fights well. player who scores a win in any game may
upgrades – their actual Naturally the hive tiles and hexes with Territory that’s not adjacent is conquered place a flag in an unclaimed territory
effect on individual cool-looking features were the first to go! on a 7+. That said, some well-protected without having to roll to see if he conquers
battles is slight, but it Once every player had placed his flag we hexes give you massive advantages, so you that territory.
all adds up. went round again until every player had might want to gamble and go for the You can also use these unclaimed
placed three flags. jackpot – fortune favours the bold. territories to include new players who have
decided they want to get in on the action –
simply give them D3 flags and let them
place their new empire anywhere on the the upgrades there for himself. It’s good
board. Hopefully, they can carve out a practice to let the games master and the
powerbase before being descended on! other players know every time this
happens, if only for the bragging rights –
PLAYING CAMPAIGN GAMES we got into the habit of sending an in-
By now you’ll be wanting to get stuck in. character email to the other players,
Luckily, in the Rok of Ages campaign, this glorifying our victories or making excuses
couldn’t be simpler. All you need to do is for our defeats (see below right).
to challenge a member of the opposing
team to a game, agree on a points value, LOSING ALL YOUR FLAGS
agree on what type of game you’ll be The good news is that even if you lose all
playing, and go for it. Simple as that. Each your flags you can still play with just as
phase of the game recommends a certain much verve as anyone else – you’ll just
type of game, but as long as you’re playing find it more difficult to claim territory. After ++ Inquisitor
Warhammer 40,000 it doesn’t really all, it’s hard to have hexes adjacent to any Caspiel Rex: This
matter; just play whatever you feel like. others if you have no territory at all. Still, is the Inquisitor, we
never fear; if there are unclaimed territories will repel these...
CLAIMING TILES on the campaign maps you can Oh, Imperator, no...
Once you have played a game, you and automatically claim them with even the [fragment lost. Data
your opponent will need to head over to most tenuous win. retrieval suggests
the campaign map(s) and see whether any OK, that’s it for now – the Planetary the revving of
territory changes hands. The victor chooses Empires rules explain the rest. Ignore the
multiple chain-
one of his opponent’s territories and rolls to Ending the Campaign section though –
see if he can conquer it as per the your games master will no doubt have a weapons] ++
Planetary Empires rules. If the victor far more special finale in mind! Datascript Ends – 13.01hrs
captures it, then he replaces his opponent’s Paint up your flags, pull your collection
flag with one of his own, claiming any of together and get ready to wage war!

38 WHITE DWARF THE ROK OF AGES www.games-workshop.com 39


MERIDIAN
Meridian was once an Eldar maiden world, though its natural splendours have long
since been replaced by the gothic stonework of Imperial architecture as human
settlers seek to harvest the priceless Helian III that enriches the planet’s crust.
MIGHTY MERIDIAN
Phil put together the Meridian board out of not only
Planetary Empires tiles but also some spare Mighty
Empires tiles that he had left over from an earlier
Warhammer campaign. You might recognise the
forests, rivers and mountains from Mighty Empires,
though Phil made sure that any field tiles were face
down; Meridian isn’t an agri-world after all. The
great thing about these campaign tiles is that they
clip together and do not need glue – once the Rok
of Ages campaign is over the guys can just break the
maps down into individual hexes and restore their
Warhammer campaign board to its former glory.
1 5
9 4
3 Battlefleet Gothic bitz and a rocket from the
10
THE RIVER LETHID
The River Lethid was once a crystal-clear stream of
freshwater that flowed through the verdant meadows of
1 Meridian. Since the Imperial settlers twisted the lands to
their own ends, it has burned with toxic chemicals that
make it ice-cold and poisonous to all forms of life.
Defensible: Any tile that has a river upon it is easier to defend – even in
the 41st Millennium it is an advantage to know that an army’s flanks are
guarded by an impassable terrain feature. All attempts made to claim
river tiles deduct one from their dice roll. This is cumulative with
bonuses from shield generators and the like.
Terrain Advantage: Any general with a river tile knows the value of
defensible terrain locations. A player may roll a dice at the beginning of
each Planetstrike game in which he is the defender – on the roll of a 6+
the player has a free Drop Zone Denial stratagem.
40 WHITE DWARF THE ROK OF AGES
The defence laser was made from part of
an Imperial cruiser from Battlefleet Gothic,
and a plastic bead.
2 11
8 9
3
4 Benefact Majoris Spaceport tile.
10
7 The Adeptus Mechanicus launch base is dwarfed by its
9
THE CLAWED SWAMPS
The wetlands of
Meridian are home to all
2 sorts of unusual species,
from megaraptors to
self-detonating toads.
Here be dragons: At the end of the
Spring phase of the campaign, players
must roll a D6 for each of their flags
that occupies a swamp tile. On the roll
of a 1 the flag is removed to represent
the forces there getting gobbled up (or
worse) by the alien beasties that dwell
in the region.
™
PLANETARY EMPIRES
5 THE DEFENCE LASER OF HIVE ARCADIA
Hive Arcadia was once a prosperous node of industry
and culture, host to many aristocratic and political
5 figures who oversaw the mining of Helian III from a safe
distance. It has suffered terribly under the
bombardments of the Rok of Ages, though its pride and
joy is still intact – a Cronos-pattern defence laser with enough power
to scar a moon.
After every game that he plays, a player that controls Hive Arcadia can
open fire with Old Cronos, the defence laser of Hive Arcadia. Place a
marker on any tile on the Rok of Ages and roll a scatter dice as near to
it as possible. If a hit is rolled, the tile with the marker is obliterated. If
an arrow is rolled, an adjacent tile to the tile with the marker is targeted
– pick the one that best corresponds to the direction on the arrow.
Replace the targeted tile with a crater tile and remove any upgrade or
flag that was on that tile.
6
Whirlwind frame have been used to create the
THE BENEFACT MAJORIS SPACEPORT
most ambitious creation yet, the Skylord-class missile
4 Ignis Deo. If the warriors defending it can buy the
Servitors enough time to finish the priming rituals then
it can be launched at the Rok before it enters orbit…
Spaceport: A player that controls the Benefact Majoris Spaceport gains
all the benefits of a spaceport tile.
3…2…1… Ignition!: At the beginning of each new season after the first,
URBAN SPRAWL
The Meridian urban
a player that owns the Ignis Deo may attempt to fire it at the Rok of
Ages. Roll a dice and add one to the result. If the dice roll is equal to or
3
sprawl is surrounded
with countless hab-
less than the number of games the owning player has played over the
course of the campaign, the Ignis Deo is launched.
blocks that have been Should the Ignis Deo be launched, its detonation is all but assured.
bombed flat in the war. The GM of the campaign should organise one last mega-game to
represent the defenders of the Rok of Ages scrambling to stop the Deo
A player with an urban sprawl tile may from launching/detonating and blowing them all to smithereens. This
choose to convert any game he is game can take any format provided that it’s ambitious and looks great.
challenged to play into a Cities of If the bad guys lose this mega-game, then they lose the entire
Death game. In this game the player campaign as the Rok is blown apart! However, if they win the game,
with the urban sprawl gains an extra they automatically claim Benefact Majoris Spaceport.
stratagem to represent his home
territory advantage.
MORE LOCATIONS OVER THE PAGE
www.games-workshop.com 41

THE WARP GATE
Beyond the haunted depths of the Vidian Forest lies an
arcane structure of alien origin, a towering edifice that hums
6 with barely contained power. Not only does it shield the
environs from harm, but if correctly activated, it can open a 6
portal from this reality into the next.
Terrain Advantage: The Warp Gate tile automatically has the ‘force field’
upgrade. This cannot be negated or destroyed.
Webway Assault: An Eldar or Dark Eldar player that occupies the Warp
Gate tile is able to pass his troops through the webway. The owning player
may opt to roll a dice before each game; on the roll of a 2+ he gains a free
Webway Assault stratagem. On the roll of a 1, his forces get lost in the Phil made the Warp Gate tile simply
labyrinthine tunnels of the webway and he must subtract 1 from all Reserve by raiding his bitz box and sticking the
rolls he makes for the duration of that game. end of a plastic Eldar gun upright onto
a normal tile.
++ The Battle-barge Hammer THE HIVE EREONE OBSERVATORY
of Nocturne has taken up A radar dish so titanic that it has its own city of Technomagi
position above the Rok and at its base, forms the early warning system for the Meridian
commenced preliminary
bombardment operations. ++
7 mining operation. The observatory lies at the heart of the
Imperial Cognitas Network and monitors every fluctuation
and troop redistribution of the battle upon the Rok.
Captain Dac’tyr, Salamanders 4th Company
The player that controls the Hive Ereone Observatory may choose what type
of game he plays and whether he takes the role of attacker and defender.
Furthermore such is the scope and quality of his intel that his opponent
must show him his army list in advance, allowing the Ereone player to tailor
a force best suited to its destruction.
7 Stratagem Points: 1
GLADIUS MOUNTAINS
The Gladius Mountains are rich with an unlimited supply of
8
Helian III, an isotope that can be used to create vast
amounts of energy. The mining operations are of such
importance that the mountain passes are dotted with
bastions and defences bristling with interceptor cannons.
Defensible: Any mountain tile is easier to defend than a normal tile. All
attempts made to claim mountains tiles deduct two from their dice roll. This
is cumulative with bonuses from shield generators and the like.
The observatory was made from a
Interceptor Gun Network: Any defender with a mountain tile not only
standard Hive City tile with the
knows the value of an interceptor cannon in a tight spot, but also has more
addition of a couple of odd-shaped
than enough wealth to afford them. In games of Planetstrike he may use
bitz found in Phil’s bitz box to make
twice as many interceptor cannons as he has bastions, instead of one
the radar dish. Plastic strips were then
stuck onto the dish.
interceptor cannon per bastion as is normally the case.
42 WHITE DWARF THE ROK OF AGES
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PLANETARY EMPIRES
DEFENCE NETWORKS
Heavy-duty defence networks zigzag for
hundreds of miles across Meridian. Even the
9 most inexperienced general can hold out
against the odds with the firepower of the
bastion networks behind him.
Defensible: Any defence networks tile is easier to defend
than a normal tile. All attempts made to claim these tiles
deduct one from their dice roll. This is cumulative with
bonuses from shield generators and the like.
Aegis Network: A player who controls a defence network
tile gains a bonus Interlocking Defences stratagem (detailed
below) in any game of Planetstrike in which he takes the
role of defender.
Interlocking Defences Stratagem Points: 2
When declared: Pre-game
The fortified zones that criss-cross the lands are so heavily
reinforced that they can be seen from space, an endless
collection of Anvil and Gauntlet-pattern defence centres
with which to smash potential invaders.
• Provided the defender places at least four objectives
across the table and links all of them with defence
lines of some sort from table edge to table edge, he
may re-roll any reserve rolls. He may also re-roll his MERIDIAN STRIKES BACK
rolls to determine from which table edge his reserves In phase two of the campaign, all defender armies
enter play. have access to the following stratagem:
Defence Stratagem: The Maiden Stirs
When declared: Defender’s Shooting phase
CRATER PIT The world the Eldar are defending is in fact a
The surface of Meridian and the lunar dormant maiden world. Sensing the turmoil of the
blastscape of the Rok of Ages have one thing defenders’ emotions, the world begins to awaken
10 in common – they are both pitted with
massive craters left by megatonnes of
and is soon joining the fight to repel the attackers.
detonating ordnance. These mile-wide • Enemy units that move within a wood-based
eyesores scar the planet’s surface like a violent skin terrain feature are treated as moving through
disease, and all too many of them lead into the dangerous terrain. This affects entire units
subterranean colonies of the vile alien species that have whether they are wholly or partially in a wood.
made their nests in the devastation.
Provided they control at least one crater pit, a Tyranid
player may treat any hex that is adjacent to a crater pit as THE HAUNTED FORESTS
adjacent to one of his own territories.
The towering forests of Meridian
once covered the lands as far as the
11 eye can see with gigantic thallorn
trees. Much of the land has since
been deforested for lumber and fuel
so that the humans might build their urban sprawl
ever higher. Those forests that remain are said to
be haunted by unquiet spirits that can drain a
man’s life force with a touch.
Terrain Advantage: A general with a forest tile has
a free Hypertrophic Flora stratagem, regardless of
what race and game type he is playing. This
essentially allows him to place free woods and
foliage before the game starts, representing his
ability to use the native terrain to his advantage.
This bonus terrain is always treated as dangerous
as well as difficult terrain.
www.games-workshop.com 43
 ™

PLANETARY EMPIRES

THE ROK OF AGES ROKKER CANNON

Most Ork Meks just don’t feel right about a
new project unless it involves a big gun, and
Primarily Ork-held, the Rok has drifted from one side of the sector to another. Only
now have the Orks installed enough stolen and salvaged engines onto the Rok that
14 those responsible for the Rok of Ages were
no exception. In fact, they went for the
biggest gun any of them had ever seen…
they are able to steer its course, sending it hurtling toward Meridian.
The rokker cannon tile is treated exactly as an azurite
crystals tile with the following exception.
THE MAKING OF THE ROK The player who controls the rokker cannon can fire it at
Phil made the Rok of Ages board with a simple but cunning the end of every game he plays.
technique. Grabbing a big pair of sharp scissors and a couple of
spare moonscape craters, Phil cut the craters into rough halves so Place a marker on any tile on Meridian and roll a scatter
they would fit around the map he had put together. He then slotted dice as near to it as possible. If a hit is rolled, the tile with
each piece roughly up and under the map tiles so that the crater’s the marker is obliterated. If an arrow is rolled, an adjacent
base was as far underneath the hexes as it would go, with the slopes tile to the tile with the marker is targeted – pick the one that
of the craters touching as they surrounded the edge of the hex map. best corresponds to the direction on the arrow. Replace the
He then traced around the map’s edge with a marker onto the targeted tile with a crater tile and remove any upgrade or
crater pieces and cut off the corresponding areas so that each flag that was on that tile.
crater piece fit back in snugly. A little bit of modelling putty to
cover the joins, a few bits of pipe and spare tank barrels for the
engines, and the board was ready to Rok (Oh dear – Ed).
INDUSTRIAL REFINERY
The industrial refinery is a miracle
of technology. Not only does it
15 refine the crude oil drained from
the crust of the Rok but it also
allows the energy-rich azurite
crystals to be converted into incredible amounts
of thrust by the expedient of hitting them with
really, really large hammers.
We do prometheum, too: The industrial refinery
also produces promethium (or ‘burny juice’ as the
Orks call it) in great quantities. Any player who has
control of the industrial refinery may re-roll any to
wound rolls made by his flame weaponry.
However, if the final result includes two or more
rolls of a 1 and the firer is an infantry model, the
operative has overloaded his promethium tanks
and goes up in flames himself – remove the model
from play.

AZURITE CRYSTALS
Azurite crystals are 15
miraculous and rare,
12
12 magnifying the energies of
the stars and chiming softly 10
12
9
with the scintillating music
of the spheres. Even a single Azurite 13 10
Crystal is an artefact of wonder and awe to 12
the Eldar race. Sadly the Orks smash them
up and bung them in the furnaces instead. 12

Any player with an azurite crystals tile may 10 16

13
harness the energies of the Crystal Forests 9 14
whenever he is playing as the defender in a
game of Planetstrike. Everything on the
board has a 5+ cover save from the effects
of the firestorm and the Meteor Strike, Crash
and Burn, and Laserburn stratagems. 12
THE REALM OF FIRE
The Realm of Fire is the base of operations for the
ENGINES worshippers of Chaos upon the Rok of Ages. Originally
The vast, lumpen refineries and industrial complexes that cling to
the rear end of the Rok have grown up around engines of a titanic
16 an active volcano, a shot from the defence laser of Hive
Arcadia utterly destroyed the volcano itself in a single
13 scale captured and retrofitted from victim spacecraft. Ork Meks
have an uncanny way of making such salvaged technologies work,
13 blast, leaving nothing but an inland sea of magma
covered by shifting islands of shattered rock. This hostile, vile-smelling
and the so-called ‘Enginetowns’ are no exception. environment is much to the liking of the Chaos Space Marines and
their daemonic allies.
A player with control of an engine hex may roll a dice at the end of each game
he has played and add one to the result. If the result is less than the number of Defensible: Any magma-covered or volcanic tile is easier to defend
games he has played in this campaign, he has refined enough azurite for a last than a normal tile. All attempts made to claim such tiles deduct two
burst of speed – he can have the Rok blast into the stratosphere of Meridian and from their dice roll. This is cumulative with bonuses from shield
come crashing down onto the planet. generators and the like.

The GM of the campaign should organise one last mega-game to represent the Hellrealm: A player who controls the Realm of Fire may inflict the
defenders of Meridian scrambling to evacuate in the last few days that are left effects of the Hellish Cacophany stratagem in any game in which he
before the cataclysmic end. All games from this point on are played with the is the defender. This free stratagem affects both armies equally as
The engine tile was created using
Planetquake rules (see page 51 of Planetstrike) to represent the terrible forces Daemons scream and shriek in the skies above. Furthermore that
spare bitz from a Shadowsword
pulling the worlds apart. player may always opt to play a Planetquake mission.
super-heavy kit.

44 WHITE DWARF THE ROK OF AGES www.games-workshop.com 45


THE END GAME
After weeks or even months of endless destruction, you’ll need to think about
concluding the campaign. There are three ways the campaign can end. The first is
the usual Planetary Empires way, the others are a bit more special…
TEN-TILE TACTICS
Once a player has amassed ten tiles the campaign is
essentially over and that player is declared the winner.
We suggest this fiendishly cunning general plays one
last mega-game against several opponents to end the
campaign in a particularly spectacular fashion. This is
the usual way for a Planetary Empires campaign to end
– you might want to suspend this rule if you want a
Rok-based finale.
DESTROYING THE ROK OF AGES
The second way to end the campaign is if the vast
missile known as the Ignis Deo, a weapon that makes a
Deathstrike missile look like a pea shooter, is
successfully launched (see the Benefact Spaceport tile’s
rules for details). If the bad guys win, the missile
launch is delayed – ignition may be attempted again if
the good guys manage to claim the spaceport. If, after
playing a climactic end game to ensure the missile
reaches its target intact, the bad guys lose, then that
means the Ignis Deo has made it to the Rok and
detonated its insanely destructive payload. The super-
missile will detonate inside the Rok of Ages, blowing it
to tiny pieces, killing the incoming bad guys and
causing a magnificent orbital firework display to erupt
across the night sky of Meridian. Well done good guys,
you’ve saved a precious world from oblivion!
46 WHITE DWARF THE ROK OF AGES
™
PLANETARY EMPIRES
NEXT MONTH
We’ve explained how to run it, so
next issue we find out what’s been
happening, and document the
campaign’s climactic finale.
A ROK AND A HARD PLACE
The third way for the campaign to end is if the bad
guys succeed in firing the engines of the Rok to their
full potential, driving the planetoid down onto the
strongholds of the good guys and obliterating them in
a devastating cataclysm. See the engine tile’s rules for
details of how this can happen. If the engines reach
their full potential in this manner, play one last mega-
game to see if the good guys can stop the cataclysm. If
the good guys win, they have bought themselves some
more time – the campaign progresses normally until
the bad guys can fire the engines up once more. If the
bad guys win, however, the Rok of Ages comes
crashing down onto Meridian, grinding into it with
such force that the entire world begins to come apart. Alex Boyd’s Ork horde has been doing as much defending as attacking, so Alex made some amazing Orky bastions.
Meridian is lost, becoming a realm of war and despair
where the sun will never shine again. Congratulations!
Glenn More’s Eldar have been raiding from the deep forests of Meridian and have even made it onto the Rok itself.
www.games-workshop.com 47